Running Dreams
by tealrose
Summary: Second Chapter up! A story on the dreams of the NCIS bunch we all know and love.(It started as a one shot, but won't get out of my head, so we will see where it leads...) Will their dreams bring them closer together, will they share and talk about them more as each start sharing? Let's find out...
1. Chapter 1

Tony was playing Tetris as he and Tim staked out the house across the street. As Tim checked the connection they had for the speakers and cameras, Tony noticed that his friend seemed a bit off today, as he kept making mistakes - something he rarely did. He thought to kid him about it, yet held back as he noted the haunted expression that Tim was trying unsuccessfully to hide. It was Tim's frustration that started the muttering, to which Tony tuned into.

"I hate the dreams. Damn it…."Tim swore lightly yet forcefully when he again realized his typing was not up to its usual correctness.

"I'm sorry, what?" Tony now knew without a doubt that something was bothering his Probie.

"Wha…did I say that out loud?" Startled, Tim jumped, almost turning white…more like an off ivory, Tony mused.

"Yes, yes you did. What dreams?" Tony knew now that his waiting was the better choice.

"Well…." Tim hesitated, seeming torn from uncertainty to what he thought Tony would say to also knowing how many years the special agent had from being a policeman to an agent.

"Spit it out, McScaredyCat, you brought it up. What dreams?

I'm not a scaredy cat!

You are when you say something and then you backtrack. Now, what dreams? Do they have to do with a case?

Tim muttered, "More like many cases."

"Oh, _Those_," Tony sighed, nodding in understanding.

"What do you mean, _Those_?" Tim jumped at this, hoping that this meant Tony would help him.

"You mean the dreams that are just like a run-on sentence."

"What?" Tim squawked, confused now, wondering if they were talking about the same thing.

"Well, take mine for instance. I find myself in a car driving and a knife is coming from behind me toward my neck when Salim is telling me to keep talking then the scene changes and I am watching Ziva disarm a bomb while I am laying there under blue lights and Kate is telling me she has my back while gunshots are going all around us and Danny is laying there under the saran wrap telling me to find his killer…." Tony stops, looking at Tim, shrugging and adds, "Its just like a run on sentence, it keeps changing yet never stops."

Tim chuckles inanely yet nods, "Oh, I get what you mean. Yeah…I am staring at the cop I shot when suddenly Jethro my dog comes at me baring his teeth and Gibbs is constantly smacking me on back of the head telling me to find the leak while Kate lays there staring at me dead in the casket and Ziva is throwing knives at suspects all around us and telling me that they are much easier to use as they don't have bullets when suddenly I stand there with one of my swords from World of Warcraft and you are telling me that I need to get a gun so I stab you…" He stops, realizing what he has just told the one person he never wanted to tell this to. He shudders, not out of fear, but wondering if a prank or a joke is going to come of this.

Tony actually preened. "Reeeally? You kill me in these dreams?" He can't help but laugh, delighted at this prospect.

No, not really – and not….ok, fine. In this one you actually looked more like a WOW character, but I knew it was you! You kept smiling your biggest smile. Don't know why I stabbed you in this one, probably because I was annoyed due to your multiple pranks lately.

"Well, I'll give you that." (chuckles)

(minutes later)

"So? What do _you_ do about the dreams?"

"What do I dooo?"

"Yeah, well….I mean, sometimes they wake me up in a cold sweat, and…"

"Ahhh, yes, they can get to you at times, don't they? Yes, they are definitely like when in Vertigo - by Alfred Hitchcock, such a classic storyteller of his time - when James Stewart dreams those awesome yet slow motion almost psychedelic dreams after his love plummets to her death? It makes you believe that his dream is more terrifying than the cartoon at the beginning when he wakes up terrified and sweating after he seems to fall to his own death…."

"Tony, Tony, stop, please…" Tim pleads, panicked now thinking that the movie would bring on another strange dream tonight.

Tony sighed; sorry now that he had brought it up, but it had just jumped out of his thoughts, and it was a classic…he silently berated himself, and just looked at his friend, waiting for him to calm down. Tim did, waiting impatiently for what would help him with those dreams.

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose, wishing that this could have happened at a later date; he had actually had one of those dreams himself not too long ago, and it had been more personal than the one he had brought up. "What do I do….well, first thing is I usually jump in the shower, as sometimes it is hard to get back to sleep, and a warm or hot shower truly helps relax the body to sleep again. Well…" he amended, "Most of the time. Then, you have to go through each thing in the dream slowly, reminding yourself of each case and the outcome of each one. Have you done that?"

Tim shook his head, "No, I just wanted to stop thinking about it! Why would I go over the whole dream again?" Exasperated, Tim thought maybe he had been the wrong person to ask. Tony shook his head, stating, "No, you _have_ to go over each part, think over each case. Take the dream you just told me…the cop you shot. Now I know you still feel like it was your fault, yet we also learned that he did have a gun and you also arrested his partner, right? And with Jethro, your dog…now when you two met, it was pretty shocking and traumatic to have a dog attack you, but now he is your friend. The Gibbs-smack, well, you are going to just have to live with that one…" He grinned for a moment, then sobering, remembering the next part of Tim's dream.

"Kate…" he sighed, looking at Tim, and Tim looked at him, pleadingly hopeful, "Now, just taking a shower and thinking on all of them are not always going to be helpful, especially when it is of ones we have lost in the line of duty." Tony sighed again, then said softly, " I still dream of her too." Tim felt a little better knowing he wasn't the only one who dreamed of Kate. He waited, wondering what Tony would say on the next part.

"Now, Ziva and her throwing knives - why does that terrify you? Was she throwing them past and behind you?"

Tim nodded vigorously, paling a bit again, to which Tony had a hard time not chuckling at but was a master of hiding his thoughts. "Well, you have one great consolation: she never misses." He stated this emphatically.

Tim gulped at this, yet nodded, "Something I will remind myself if I dream of it again."

Tony grinned brightly at him now, as he was at his favorite part of the dream, and Tim, seeing the look on his face, groaned inwardly, thinking, _'Great, now I'm in for it….'_

Later... (Ziva and Tim)

"So, I heard you killed Tony in a dream."

"Wha…..he told you?"(squeakily)

"Well, it amused him, apparently. Have _I_ ever been in your…run on dreams – Tony called them that."

"Uh, yeah…." He drew it out, hesitating. "Will you be mad at me?"

"No, I am just curious." She waited. " Well?"Ziva said impatiently.

"Ahhh…well, one of them was a while after we rescued you from Somalia, and you kept on asking me if I was all right when suddenly you were dismantling a bomb and being attacked by a killer which you killed by throwing one of your knives and Tony kept making innocuous comments about movies while we chased down a suspect and Gibbs kept smacking us all on the back of our heads yelling at us to 'find something'…." He stopped, hesitating.

"Interesting…."

"Do, ah…do you have dreams like that?" He was relieved that he remembered one that did not have her mad at him for not deleting those pictures.

"I might, yet I might not."

"You mean you are not going to tell me?"

"If I told you what was in those dreams, I would have to kill you."

"Oh, uh, because some of it is classified from before you came to us?"

"Maybe…"she smiled. He shuddered; he did not think he wanted to ask her again.

Much later...(Abby adn Tim)

"Soooo…I heard you've had dreams…."

"Not you too…."


	2. Chapter 2

Hello, T here! Apologies for the wait on this chapter…life sure gets in the way (normal everyday life…sigh…)…I had intended for this to be a one shot, and yet this idea has not let itself go. Guess I will go with it until it has finished in my head. As we all say for our beginnings of these stories, we do not own such and such company, show, characters, blah – blah - blah. Hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think! (Also, please note, italics are text messages…tried to get messages out like usual texts, but everyone is different in their texting…)

Running Dreams

Chapter Two

1:30AM

He awoke gasping and drenched with sweat. His hands shook and as they were grasping at his pillows and blankets he fought to calm down and breathe normally. Sitting up he wiped his hands across his face; staring across and into the darkness of his room, he wished he could not still see the phantasms. Slowly he forced himself up and to the bathroom, turning on the shower to lukewarm. He stripped then stepped inside and, closing his eyes he stood fully under the spray. Forcing himself once again to replay through his thoughts all he could remember, he reminded himself of each and every case that they had closed and finished. He sighed, leaning his head and arms against the wall of the shower. Slowly he turned up the heat of the water, washing himself clean… on the outside, that is.

Moments later he was drying then getting some clean pajamas. His hair damp, he sat on the bed and stared at his phone. He knew he couldn't sleep, just knew it would not work its way out yet. Picking up his phone, he began to type…

_Hey, you awake? Sorry, can't sleep…dumb dreams…_

Moments later, an answering text came.

_Is ok. U all right? Sometimes takes bit to process n think bout._

_Yeah, showered n thot all points of dream, but well, u know how some r hard t shake off. What u do when can't get back t sleep?_

_Sometimes put in movie… lull to sleep. If bad, work out, but usually only when can't settle at all. _

_Huh, good ideas, thx. Will try quiet movie won't bother neighbors. Maybe musical… music might help. Unless you have diff idea._

_Normally would laugh n ask what musicals u like… too many classic ones. If works for u, great; suggest any movie u fully enjoy from begin t end. _

_Hmmm….Princess Bride not musical, but enjoy camaraderie n fun of it. _

_Great one! Ummmm, want some company? Can't sleep either._

He looked at this last text, startled, and then smiled. So, he thought, his partner and friend was having a rough night as well. What were friends for? Grinning, he sent one more.

_Come on over, I'll make some tea. _

_Be there in ten _

Tony used the key given to him in emergencies into Tim's apartment. He carried a bag with extra clothes that he always had with him, and his work necessities for the next day. He wore sweats and a NCIS t-shirt, covered with his leather jacket he would wear tomorrow for work. His comfortable running shoes were on his feet. Dropping his bag carefully on Tim's table, he took the large tea mug Tim handed him.

"You look pale. Need to talk about it?" Tim shrugged, yet Tony could see that he needed to talk, so he took a seat at the kitchen table and waited, taking a drink of the hot tea. Tim sighed, holding his mug in a two hand grip, it almost too hot yet not quite for his palms. He was still standing, leaning against the counter. It was almost funny, he mused, that not too long ago he and Tony would be hassling each other even in situations like these, yet their friendship had become almost like a brother relationship. Of course, a weird one at times, yet it worked. Even as he looked back at Tony, he noted that his friend was also a little jumpy. So, he took a breath and said something he knew he would have never gotten away with a few years ago, "I will if you will."

(I just love Cliffhangers…don't you? Now, don't be shy, why don't you let me know what cases are bugging each of them, and maybe I will use them, if it is all right with you, of course! Heck, there are also some things I even remember and want to hopefully put in that weren't really in the show, so throw some ideas out there, ok?)


End file.
